Hey, Toronto Zoo: Leave those birds alone!

Today we heard that the Toronto Zoo is planning on separating Pedro and Buddy, two male African penguins that paired up and are showing no interest in any of the six females they share the exhibit with. Curators at the zoo are opting to forcefully end the relationship so the birds can have a chance to eventually produce offspring.

Here are just a couple of reasons why we simply don’t agree with their plans:

The zoo claims that pairing Pedro and Buddy with female partners will somehow help with the conservation of endangered African penguins. In reality, captive African penguins in zoo and aquaria around the world are not running out. The endangered penguins are the ones found off the coast of South Africaand Namibia, those living in the wild. The same penguins that IFAW works to save through efforts like the Chick Bolstering Project or the Treasure Oil Spill of 2000. To date, there are no evident links between penguin conservation efforts in captivity and their impact on wild populations inSouthern Africa.

This is not an ‘unnatural’ occurrence, like many people claim. Same-sex bonds in penguins have been observed not only in captive penguins like with chinstrap penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo or Humboldt penguins in a Germany’s Bremerhaven Zoo, but also through scientifically-documented sightings in wild populations like with Magellanic penguins in South America.

So, Toronto Zoo, just leave Pedro and Buddy alone, let them continue their special relationship.

Comments: 3

Anonymous

3 years ago

I think the Toronto Zoo should just leave those poor birds alone, because if they were to think about it the only ones those birds know are each other and to seperate them would be cruel and uncalled for so they should just leave those birds alone